Audience Reaction

Paul Lussier, Mary Wexler, Mark Lund and Bob Leveilee at The Elm in Millbury.

I am always the first to arrive and last to leave our theatrical screenings. Last Monday night at the Elm Draught House Cinema was no exception.  To quote Commander Straker from the UFO TV series episode ESP, “Yes, I always like to look over a convention hall before a conference.” And what a conference it was!

Shortly after I arrived Justice Is Mind’s star Paul Lussier who plays John Darrow and Mary Wexler who co-stars as Judge Wagner arrived along with Bob Leveille who plays Mr. Oxford in the film. Bob, and his Pizza Post, were instrumental in promoting this screening. A couple of weeks ago he announced a nice surprise for us when he worked out an arrangement with All Points Limousine to drive us around for an hour to celebrate and toast our accomplishments to date. While I’m usually “on alert” making sure the screenings run smoothly, it was nice to relax and enjoy this moment with actors who I now consider friends.

The “Justice Is Mind” family enjoying the evening.

After our drive around town, audiences started to arrive. In total we had around 140 attend. I say around because 133 were paid ticket holders (including myself), but I did see a fair number just walk in without paying. That was a shame, because theatres, like filmmakers, need to generate revenue. But that being said, when I’m watching the film and I see the last scene come up I always wonder how audiences will react. Up came my credit and the audience erupted into applause.  As Eve Harrington said in All About Eve, “If nothing else, there’s applause… like waves of love pouring over the footlights.” While I was in the lobby, many came up to me and said how much they enjoyed the film. If nothing else, that’s all a filmmaker needs.

Of course you can’t please everyone. One of our location partners (who I won’t name), greeted me at the beginning and then darted out at the end and wouldn’t even make eye contact.  Honestly, the travels of an independent filmmaker are like a dramatic TV show. As Max Schumacher said in Network, “And here are a few scenes from next week’s show.”

With 11 theatrical screenings with an average per screen gross of $1,100+, 8^th placed highest rated independent film released on IMDB for 2013, higher education and science fiction screenings around the country, a 12 month ranking on Box Office Mojo of 539 out of 11,474 films and an upcoming international premiere through a multi-billion dollar company (public announcement coming soon), I know we have a marketable and commercial project. We all know this is not an easy industry to navigate and is in a constant stage of change, but I do demand that our voices be heard and that you tune in to our show.

So what are a few scenes from next week’s show? I’m working on “the making of Justice Is Mind” that will be a DVD extra, another review is coming out next weekend, I will be following up with a variety of theatres considering Justice Is Mind for screenings, prep for our international premiere in October, having closed captions created for our VOD release and…

Until next week.